April AstroUpdate

Hi Family and Friends,

The April 2nd Full Moon is holding court in the house of Libra....Libra, the sign of relationships is shining bright under this Full Moon. You may find your relationships under this bright light surfacing with issues of insecurity, dependency or control .....remember the effects of the Full Moon last for a few days. At the same time Aries, Leo and Sagittarius form a Grand Fire Trine for the first two weeks of April. This is a powerful charge of energy....Jupiter in Sagittarius encourages us to follow our dreams.......Saturn in Leo advises use to follow our hearts and the Sun in Aries is relentless in pushing us forward to make it all happen!!

Mars is in Pisces this month and here you will find folks compassionate and expressing their desire for peace....there actually is a peace walk April 7 in Fremont....contact me if you are interested.
Venus enters the dual sign of Gemini, April 12. Communication and sharing of ideas will be key the next month. Any writing projects during this time will flow easily.
April 17th the New Moon will be in courageous Aries, just in time to support any changes you need to make spurned on by the Grand Fire Trine!
There will be quite a bit of energy expressed this month.....so get outside, increase your physical activity and enjoy life!!

April's traditional stone is of course the Diamond, king of the Gemstones!! So I thought I would introduce you to the most famous Diamond of all........The Hope Diamond! Pictured here you see it as it is displayed in the Smithsonian Museum. According to the museum it is the "Mona Lisa of the Smithsonian", the single most visited object with as many as 70,000 visitors a day!

The Hope Diamond is a large, just about postage stamp size, deep blue Diamond weighing 45.52 carats.
This wasn't always the case........it started out as a crude triangle shape weighing about 112 3/16 carats. According to legend it was stolen from an eye of a sculpted idol of the Hindu goddess Sita, the wife of Rama, the Seventh Avatar of Vishnu. A French merchant purchased it in 1660 and sold it to King Louis XIV in 1668. Sier Pitau, the court Jeweler, cut it and produced a 67 1/8 carat stone that became known as the French Blue Diamond. King Louis XIV had it set into gold and wore it on a suspended neck ribbon for ceremonial occasions. In 1749, King Louis XV he had it set on his pendant for the Order of the Golden Fleece and after his death it fell into disuse.

When Louis XVI of France became King, he gave the Diamond to Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution while Louis XVI and Marie Antionette were held in prison the Diamond was stolen in 1972. Cadet Guillot, one of the robbers took it to London to sell, but was put into prison. There is no record of what happened to the Diamond after that until it showed up 20 years later in the possession of King George IV of the United Kingdom. It was next sold to English banker and gem collector Lord Henry Philip Hope, for whom it is named. A descendant of Lord Hope sold it to pay debts. The diamond finally passed to jeweler Pierre Cartier who reset it into the necklace you see here. Cartier learning that American Evalyn Wash Mclean believed that things that were bad luck for others were good luck to her, invented the famous story of the Diamonds curse.

The "Curse" goes like this........the Diamond was stolen from a Hindu idol...when the priests noticed that one of the two eyes of the idol was missing, they placed a curse on whoever owned the Diamond. There is a long list of owners and deaths but most of the claims are not substantiated.
But then again Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded!!

Anyway, back to the Hope's history........Evalyn Walsh Mclean bought the Diamond for $180,000 in 1910 and even pawned it at times when she was short of cash. Harry Winston, the famous jeweler, acquired the Diamond when he bought Mrs. Mcleans jewelry collection after she died in 1947. Winston then re-cut it slightly, displayed it extensively throughout the country, promoting its mystique, and eventually gave it and other gems to the Smithsonian in 1958. The Hope Diamond is currently valued at $250,000,000.

Metaphysically, Diamond stimulates love and only works its magic when the Diamond is freely given!

Enjoy April,
Susan